ABSTRACT
This chapter challenges dominant narratives regarding populist threats to democracy, offering a novel analysis of the “narrowing” and “shallowing” of democratic quality over the course of neoliberalization projects which fostered political and socioeconomic exclusion for popular sectors. The chapter highlights that the general trend of a (self-reinforcing) narrowing and shallowing of democracy, and the congealment of parties and political leaders around marketized citizenship models, fostered unstable democratic equilibria with outsiders challenging traditional party systems in Europe, North America, and Latin America. The varying forms anti-system outsiders take are discussed, suggesting that Latin America’s progressive forms offer potential responses to underlying issues of market democracy that fostered crises in the first place. However, the chapter notes how left-led governments faced opposition blocs who demanded pro-market orthodoxy and protection of pre-existing political/economic power distribution, while at the same time they faced pressure from organized popular sectors via social movements, unions, and neighborhood organizations amongst others for greater participation and improved living conditions. The chapter thus raises a fundamental question: If traditional elite sectors advocate a market model of democracy while popular sectors call for more participative–substantive forms, how are we to understand the pathways and outcomes of processes headed by progressive outsiders?
